Biden reads out ‘pause’ instruction during speech to union members in gaffe reminiscent of Ron Burgundy
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden or President Ron Burgundy?
In a case of life imitating art, the commander-in-chief blurted out the stage note “pause” Wednesday while addressing union members in the nation’s capital.
“Four more years. Pause,” said Biden, 81, a la Will Ferrell’s buffoonish newsman character in the classic 2004 comedy “Anchorman.”
Members of North America’s Building Trades Unions stepped in and dutifully chanted “four more years” in response to the president’s botched cue.
It was not immediately clear whether the instruction was included in Biden’s teleprompter or in his prepared remarks.
The gaffe was one of a series of bizarre moments that peppered the speech, including Biden saying his predecessor, Donald Trump, had given him a pair of boots as a present.
“The guy has never worked a day in the working man’s boots,” Biden said of his likely 2024 opponent before adding: “By the way, he gave me a pair of boots as a gift, by the way.”
“I know how to put them on,” the president added. “I still sometimes cut the yard. But the Secret Service doesn’t let me do it anymore.”
It was unclear whether Biden was trying to tell a joke or was relating the latest in a series of dubious anecdotes.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did the Trump campaign.
Biden attacked the 45th president repeatedly Wednesday, telling union delegates Trump “looks down on us” and was like “the guys you grew up with that you’d like to get into the corner just give them a straight left”
“I’m not suggesting we hit the president,” the Democrat hastened to add.
Elsewhere in his speech, Biden incorrectly claimed “I cut the national debt so far,” when he meant to use the word “deficit” — a repeated gaffe on his part.
The president also invoked his hometown of Scranton, Pa. during the remarks as he attempted to draw a distinction between blue-collar voters and Trump, who will need the group to win back the White House.
At one point, Biden humorously referenced Trump’s 2020 musing about the possibility that disinfectants could be injected to cure COVID-19.
“Remember when he was trying to deal with COVID he suggested injecting a little bleach in your veins? He missed, it all went to his hair,” Biden said.
The president claimed on two occasions last week that cannibals may have eaten his mother’s brother Ambrose Finnegan in 1944 when his military plane crashed during World War II — offending the leaders of Papua New Guinea just a day before Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi arrived to court the nation.
The White House later acknowledged that military records show the plane crashed into the ocean.
